ACS

Members of Parliament have commended the work that ACS is carrying out to support local shops and independent retailers in a debate on the future of high streets last night.

The debate, led by Nuneaton MP Marcus Jones, welcomed ACS’ campaign to strengthen the upcoming National Planning Policy Framework’s town centre first provisions by including a robust sequential test as part of any development plans. Such a test would require that all sites close to a town centre are considered before any out of town developments were allowed.

ACS Chief Executive James Lowman said: “The upcoming National Planning Policy Framework is key to ensuring that new developments are seriously considered for town centres before they are built in out-of-town locations. Throughout the passage of the NPPF through Parliament we have raised concerns that planned town centre first provisions and retail diversity requirements were insufficient to support high streets. The Government must strengthen the NPPF and reverse the trend of retail closures that has had a negative impact on our centres.

“We mustn’t believe that the threat of out of town retail has subsided. Despite recent supermarket claims that out of town hypermarkets are a thing of the past, it remains the case that 80% of pipeline retail development is set for out of town locations. A robust town centre first policy and ‘exceptional sign off’ on all out of town developments from the Secretary of State, as suggested in the Portas Review, are essential steps toward sustainable high streets and diverse retail centres.”

ACS has recently written to the newly appointed High Streets Minister Grant Shapps who has been tasked with forming the Government’s official response to the Portas Review, offering its support on the issue.

Contacts

Shane Brennan, Public Affairs Director
shane.brennan@acs.org.uk / 01252 515001
Chris Noice, Communications Executive
chris.noice@acs.org.uk / 01252 533013 / 07812 144439

Notes to Editors

1. ACS (Association of Convenience Stores) is the voice of local shops, representing over 33,500 convenience stores. ACS helps local shops thrive through lobbying, support and networking opportunities.

2. The issue of parking was raised frequently during the debate, with suggestions from MPs that the notion of designing out cars from town centre planning was ‘old fashioned’ and that more needed to be done to allow people to drive into their town centres and high streets without facing excessive charges. Mr Jones stated that business rate calculations for out of town parking were not on a level playing field with those for town centre car parks and was in desperate need of reform.

3. Throughout the debate, MPs were divided over the impact of out of town stores on the sustainability of high streets. Gareth Johnson MP, whose constituency contains the Bluewater shopping complex, stated that out of town retail parks and high streets offered different experiences and should not be considered as competitors. However, Lewisham West and Penge MP Jim Dowd said that while he thought the “horse had bolted” when it came to the threat of new out of town developments, the Government had “already let too many out of town stores be built”.